The Daily Guide grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States - Sunday, 03 April 2016 "Prayer Tip: Get In Touch with Your Thomas"

 The Daily Guide grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States - Sunday, 03 April 2016 "Prayer Tip: Get In Touch with Your Thomas"

SUNDAY, 03 APRIL 2016 – "Prayer Tip: Get In Touch with Your Thomas"
Daily Scripture: John 20:24 Now T’oma (the name means “twin”), one of the Twelve, was not with them when Yeshua came. 25 When the other talmidim told him, “We have seen the Lord,” he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger into the place where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe it.”

26 A week later his talmidim were once more in the room, and this time T’oma was with them. Although the doors were locked, Yeshua came, stood among them and said, “Shalom aleikhem!” 27 Then he said to T’oma, “Put your finger here, look at my hands, take your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be lacking in trust, but have trust!” 28 T’oma answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Yeshua said to him, “Have you trusted because you have seen me? How blessed are those who do not see, but trust anyway!”

"Prayer Tip"

A few weeks ago I took a leap of faith and became a mother hen to four baby chicks. I am so excited to raise them as pets, and excited for the eggs they will gift us with. It became clear to me very early on that these chicks have a basic level of trust in me. They trust that I will feed and water them, that I will protect them from cats, dogs and scariest of all--overzealous toddlers. Sure, they are still a bit skittish around human beings, but for the most part the fact that their needs will be provided for is something they have begun to count on. And, oh, how lucky they are not to have experienced a betrayal of trust.
Far too often the pain in our lives tries to convince us that others aren’t to be trusted. I was a first or second grader when I began to question who can be trusted in this world. I was innocently holding hands with my friend at school, and instantly everyone started spreading the rumor that we were "in love." I was pretty naïve. I didn’t know about romantic love, and I didn’t even want to think about kissing--cooties, yuck! I came home hurt and in need of my mom’s comforting explanation as to why the kids were teasing me. I learned then, or maybe even earlier, to be wary of trusting others. So many of us have had our trust betrayed in such significant ways that we have grown cynical and hopeless about ever trusting again.
And yet we hear this call in Scripture: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6) How can we expect to trust God when we have been wounded so many times? As we dig into Thomas’ reaction to the risen Lord, I can’t help but wonder if he has trust issues behind his doubts. Often, that is true in my own life.
This week, as you go to God in prayer, ask God to remind you of the ways trust has been broken in your life. Write them down. Spend time praying that God would bring a sense of healing to the wounds these experiences left. It sounds strange, I know, but I think that when we invite God to heal us we are taking a small act of faith to learn to trust again. May it be so. Amen.[Katherine Ebling-Frazier, Pastor of Prayer]
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April 3, 2016 Sermons on the Gospel of John “Get In Touch with Your Thomas”

Scripture: John 20:24-29

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Jesus sought out the fishermen

MONDAY 4.4.16 John 21:1-6

John’s gospel showed Jesus in or near Jerusalem more often than Matthew, Mark or Luke.

Chapter 21, however, told of Peter and several other disciples back at the Sea of Galilee.

(There are various guesses, but John did not explain why they chose to go fishing.) Despite their past experience as fishermen, they were not successful on their own. Yet when Jesus guided them, they hauled in a huge catch.

• This story (like a similar one in Luke 5) showed Jesus showing skilled, experienced fishermen where to find a startlingly large catch. When have you found yourself ineffective (in your personal life or an area of ministry) because you weren’t open to Jesus’ wisdom? When has “practicing the presence of Jesus” made your efforts clearly more effective?

• In his prologue, John wrote, “The true light that shines on all people was coming into the world…. but the world didn’t recognize the light” (John 1:9-10). In verse 4 of chapter 21, he wrote, “Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples didn’t realize it was Jesus.” What has helped you to recognize Jesus when his presence touches your life?

How can you sharpen your spiritual “vision” to “see” Jesus?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, you promised to be with me “every day until the end of this present age”(Matthew 28:20). Help me keep my heart open, attuned to your comforting, guiding presence with me. Amen.

“They knew it was the Lord”

TUESDAY 4.5.16 John 21:7-14

Jesus was no ghost—he was truly, physically alive. He built a fire and cooked breakfast! John, a master of evocative images, must also have recalled that Peter’s faith “crashed” around a fire in Caiaphas’ court (cf. John 18:15-18, 25-27). He probably meant the unbroken net full of fish (153—fishermen would count!) to point to the wide reach of Christ’s gospel, the truth that there would always be room for all the people for whom God’s messengers “fished.”

• The fish and bread were ready, yet Jesus said, “Bring some of the fish that you’ve just caught.” Have you ever thought about why Jesus doesn’t just do everything for us, changing us into the people he wants us to be, but instead asks us to join our effort with his

spiritual power? In what ways does his call for you to work with him as you grow spiritually offer the best path to character development, allowing you to still be you, but a new you?

• John 6:11 said, “Jesus took the bread. When he had given thanks, he distributed it to those who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish.” Today we read, “Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish.” Try to imagine what

memories this action must have triggered in the disciples. Think back on your own walk with Jesus. What memories of high points strengthen you for today’s challenges?

Prayer: Loving Lord, long before you prepared this breakfast, the psalmist wrote, “You set a table for me” (Psalm 23:5). As I eat my meals today, remind me of all the deeper ways you feed my soul as well as my body. Amen.

Healing Peter’s triple denial

WEDNESDAY 4.6.16 John 21:15-17

Three times Peter denied knowing Jesus (cf. John 18:15-18, 25-27). As his urgent dive into the water and swim to shore seemed to show (cf. John 21:7), Peter was aching inside, eager to reconnect with Jesus. Jesus didn’t want that failure to haunt the rest of Peter’s life, either.

Three times, he allowed Peter to affirm his love, deeper and more solid now because he knew Jesus forgave him even when he had failed.

• Scholar N. T. Wright said, “The three questions correspond to Peter’s three denials. Three for completeness, yes, but three also for reminder. The smell of the charcoal fire lingers.

Peter’s night of agony—and Jesus’ own night of agony—returns. But because of the latter, the former can be dealt with.”1 What failures haunt (or once haunted) your relationship with Jesus? Imagine yourself on that beach around that fire with Jesus. Hear Jesus ask you, “______, do you love me?” Answer, and hear Jesus deal with any barrier that disturbs you, leaving it in your past.

• Wright also noted that as Peter affirmed his love for Jesus, “the answer earns, each time, not a pat on the back, not a ‘There, that’s all right then’, but a command. A fresh challenge.

A new commission.”2 Our work doesn’t earn forgiveness, but Jesus’ call to join in his work is the clearest sign that he forgives us. In what way(s) do you sense Jesus calling you to serve, to feed his sheep, today? How are you answering the call?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, like Peter, I love you. Like Peter, I sometimes fail you. Thank you for always drawing me to you and welcoming me back, like Peter, and for calling me to live your love more and more to all I meet. Amen.

1N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, part 2. (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004, p. 164.)

2N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, part 2. (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004, p. 165.)

A somber call to follow

THURSDAY 4.7.16 John 21:18-19

When Peter first chose to follow Jesus, he couldn’t possibly have realized all that Jesus’ call meant. Now he’d seen Jesus go to the cross. And now Jesus told him that he would yet have the chance to live up to his words in John 13:37 (“I’ll give up my life for you”). With the cost of following him clearly in view, Jesus repeated the same simple, sweeping call: “Follow me.”

• Though there have been (and are today) brave martyrs for Christ, the vast majority of Christ-followers through the ages have not had to die for their faith. Rather, Jesus asks us to “die” to ways of thinking about life and faith that are inconsistent with his life and example. How eager or reluctant are you to follow Jesus into a changed way of thinking and living that will show God’s glory to those around you?

• “[Jesus] said this to show the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.” Most of us don’t know what the future holds, what kind of death we’ll die. We do know that we will all die, that it’s not a matter of “if” but “when.” How can you and God make the most of each

day of the rest of your life? What does it mean for you to “glorify” God?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, “Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee.” I recite the words at church. Please help me to mean them. Amen.

Your journey is your own

FRIDAY 4.8.16 John 21:20-23

In John 17:18 Jesus prayed, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent [my disciples] into the world.” In John 20:21 he told them, “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” Peter had personally accepted Jesus’ call anew, and he would follow, even at great cost—but he wondered what might await the other disciple. Jesus said our call is to follow him, not to compare our path with anyone else’s.

• Jesus’ prayer and call for his disciples to follow him applied not only to his first disciples, but extends to his disciples today. It is not always an easy call, then or now. When has following God's call on your life challenged you? How has Jesus’ hope and peace helped you through the ups and downs on your journey of knowing, loving and serving God?

• It can be tempting to compare your journey with other people’s, to wish your journey were more like someone else’s. Jesus doesn’t call all of his followers down the same path. We each have a unique set of life experiences, gifts and a personal relationship with Jesus.

What aspects of your journey are easiest for you to thank God for? Which parts do you wish God would change, or free you from? In what ways can you see that you’ve grown through tough things you’ve faced with God in the past?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for calling me to follow you. Help me to trust you at every stage of my journey, without trying to compare my path with anyone else’s. Amen.

One disciple’s reliable testimony

SATURDAY 4.9.16 John 21:24-25

In his book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, scholar Richard Bauckham documented that first century readers considered history nearly worthless unless an eyewitness wrote it. The writer of the Gospel of John was an eyewitness to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, he said. He could have written much more about Jesus, but his testimony was trustworthy and powerful.

“I saw it—you can believe it!” he seemed to say at the end, probably recalling Jesus’ words to Thomas (“Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe”—John 20:29).

• Although he wrote down his testimony to Jesus, John did not say, “The Word became a book.” He said, “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14). How will you take what you have learned about Jesus from studying the fourth gospel and weave it into your day-to-day life, so that your life becomes more and more a living embodiment of God’s great love for the world?

Prayer: Dear God, let me live my life each day in such a way that more and more I disappear, and those who see me see your love lived out by a person. Amen.

Family Activity: Place some coins in a container. Take the container as a family to a nearby fountain. As you sit by the fountain, ask each person to take one or more coins. Review the story in John 21 of how Jesus forgave Peter, even after he denied even knowing Jesus.

Explain that this is a time to tell God “I’m sorry” for any times we fell short of God’s ideal. Ask each person to individually pray (aloud or silently), “Lord, I am sorry for…” and confess the error to God. Toss a coin into the water. Repeat as many times as people wish. When everyone is finished, invite family members to dip their hands in the fountain for a symbolic washing. Finish by praying, “Thank you, God, for the promise of your forgiveness through

Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Prayer Requests

Prayers for Peace & Comfort for:

•Katie Taylor and family following the death of her mother, Betty Taylor, 3/26

•Family and friends of Freddie McNeal following his death, 3/25

•Rob Danner and family following the death of his mother, Bonnie Danner, 3/25

•Angela Green and family following the death of her grandmother, Gertrude Sayers, 3/24

•Friends and Family of Keith Reining following his death, 3/22

•Kay Billings and family following the death of her mother, Ruby Kirby, 3/20

• Mike Mitchell and family following the death of his mother, Elizabeth "Betty" Mitchell, 3/20

•Trilla Ray-Carter and family following the death of her mother, Barbara Ann Bell Ray Hoofnagle, 3/16

• Janet Luessenheide and family following the death of her aunt, Susan Bills, 3/13

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The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue

Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States

913.897.0120
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